For 12 dollars, it had better cook my ******* dinner. And I'm not talking this take-out Chinese stuff from last night that the figure just heats up in the microwave; I'm talking full-on, home-cooked, marinate-it-in-wine quality steak and baked potato dinner. Something tells me, though, that it would be a 12 dollar Yarna, and it would just eat the dinner itself. ******* 12 dollar Yarna, eating me out of house and home.

By 2016, the line will be planned out all the way til the contract expires in 2018. I wonder what new sculpts, if any, will be on the table then. I also wonder if Hasbro will plan beyond 2018. I already know what...repacks!

Worse for us Canucks. It's been bad before; we're almost always guaranteed to miss waves of crap at the tail end before they shut down a particular cardback/named line. But honestly? Killing the Legacy stuff while it should still be coming out for Canada, England and who knows where else? No, it doesn't get worse than that.

I get Hasbro's appeal for CW distribution; but killing Legacy for us entirely and it is done through this year and for the forseeable future, I just don't get. I appreciate the bulk of you are in the US and will continue to have it better, as it always has been and always will be. But really, can you honestly blame those of us abroad for largely giving up?

I blame nobody abroad for giving up. It seems unless you're in China, you're not likely to have much luck obtaining anything right now. It's something I don't see as making much sense personally, but I also think they could've found better ways to distribute things, even if it was offered through online distributors in these countries somehow... I'm sure there's toy stores who'd be willing to offer up stuff by the case, and I'd think making sure they're in the mix of etailers getting product wouldn't be impossible.

It's a mess though, so I have no idea. I don't think everything Hasbro does is logical... I never have.

Legends Action Figures is based out of Montreal for us (you've probably seen the ad on scum) and they're actually really good guys to deal with. But the pricing is a bit steep, usually running in the $12 per figure range so it's a tough pill to swallow. I'll likely order any of the OT waves/cases from them and try to sell off the fillers/PT figs. So there are solutions.

I just refuse to be happy about a distributor (Hasbro Canada) that continues shipping the Yarna wave more than a year after the initial release. Hell, it's almost 18 months. The failure of the line simply is not the fault of the consumer nor the economy in that case.

I posted this in the PSWCS Yahoo e-mail list, but I'll repost it here:

I'm not necessarily seeing a dearth of product at any of the stores I frequent with possible exception to Wal*Mart. But of what I do see it's mostly Legends, then Clone Wars and either none or next to none of Legacy.I have to agree with the part of the rant (posted on Jedi Temple Archives) that states to put Legends out only when there is a lull. Hasbro is going to say that it's the stores who are ordering more Legends cases. That's in part because that's what the store is getting, so of course it's going to look like it's selling more than Legacy.I'm all for making this one line.

Cases can be mixed as such:

Case 1 (Thirds)4 figs CW, 4 figs Legacy, 4 figs Legends

Case 2 (50/50)6 figs CW, 6 figs Legacy

In this respect only some Legends figs hit the shelves, not plugging them up.Hasbro can then have smaller waves of figures. This works very well for Build-A-Droid waves. Waves that have 4 figs to make an Astromech and waves that have 6 figs to make protocol and other droids fit into this scheme perfectly.

One line, one price, one source for availability. Deleting the additional sku's will also help the stock people at our local retail stores.

This seems like a much simpler way to do it. The complaint from Hasbro would be that they wouldn't be able to track how well Clone Wars vs. Legacy vs. Legends were selling. However, that is something we can readily let them know via reports from the collecting websites. If we're seeing CW or Legacy or Legends figures lag on the shelf, then Hasbro could adjust accordingly in the future.

[end copy/paste]

So how about that? Does my idea of mixed Animated/Realistic/Legends sound okay at least? I think it really has merit. Everyone will see some product then. Waves can be smaller with realistic waves still having the opportunity to have build-a-figure pieces in them.

I'd appreciate folks thoughts on this. And maybe Hasbro is looking in on this thread too...-Sal

Logged

I'm just a humble collector trying to make his way through the universe...of toy aisles."We are strong. We are resilient. We are American." - President Barack Obama, State of the Union Address 2010

Canadian retailers within Canada (i.e. non-specialty stores) are only able to order from a particular sku# that represents a line (i.e. Legends or Clone Wars or Legacy; or if all one sku at Hasbro Canada then who knows) and cannot ask for specific waves. So while I can guarantee my local Walmart toy manager never wants to see the Yarna wave again, she is likely to see it until it is flushed from Hasbro's warehouse. The only people that are satisfied with product moving at that point is Hasbro and the retailer and consumer are left holding the bag/responsibility for not continuing to purchase product.

Is this the same situation in the US or are retailers able to specify by case number for example?

That I know of, no. Retailors can't ask for specific waves. E-tailors can to a slight extent.

If you ask me, it should be the retailors dictating to Hasbro what cases of which waves they want.

If some savy marketing rep from any of the big box stores took a look around on the collecting boards, they'd see the figures we collectors are more excited about and order those in heavier doses.

What I am sick of is those "refresher" cases. We get the same figures that aren't selling in some waves coming in later cases that should be reserved for new figures. And those refreshed figs aren't coming with the droid part they once had. Now it's the new droid wave part. Thus making it harder for people to complete droids in many instances.

I'd rather hasbro wait a year or more before bring out figures that have just been made. This will give them enough time to find out which figures actually sold well, rather than guessing. Then maybe we wouldn't have had the dearth of Yarna's et al.

This would also help by moving more (read new) product onto the shelves in a timely fashion that would more closely resemble Hasbro's projected release dates.

For awhile I was not worried about finding figures as it seemed easy. However, in the past 6 months I've found it to be a necessity to buy when I see it. Sometimes this means online purchases which may or may not cost me more. In the end though I have the peace of mind knowing I have the figures without the stress of waiting to get them and/or wasting gas to go to stores-especially when the product isn't there in the first place.

Thanks goodness for Clone Cash coupons. I've saved a bundle using those things.

we all know there are better or different ways Hasbro could be doing things. In most cases they choose to ignore us. So be it, it's their business. However, don't blame us then when stuff isn't flying off the shelf.

AmIrighthereorwhat?

Logged

I'm just a humble collector trying to make his way through the universe...of toy aisles."We are strong. We are resilient. We are American." - President Barack Obama, State of the Union Address 2010

1. Things have been awfully quiet on the mid-sized vehicle line. We got a couple of great new additions this past summer (still loving the Droid Tank), but nothing since then. Any chance that you can spot us a couple of hints on upcoming starfighters/ships we'll see on the shelves this Spring?

** Unfortunately, there won't be any new ones this Spring. The Starfighters are doing well, but the new wave that was planned for Spring won't make it out at this point and has been pushed out to Fall '10. When the new assortment starts up, it will be chock full of newness. We can confirm that both the new Snowspeeder and a new Cloud Car will be in the line. Stay tuned for official looks at this at Toy Fair.

Umm, WTF do all those Hasbro employees plan to do for the first part of 2009? Sit around and play Tetris? Are you guys putting ANYTHING out?

I would love to see the look on their CEO's face when the production team announced they are pretty much taking the first 8 months or so off. "I see...and how exactly do you expect me to pay your salaries? From that My Little Pony slush fund?"

Maybe they could use the down time to find a new factory. They seemed to have a lot of problems with the old place this year.

Logged

Slice you open like a tauntaun, faster than the Autobahn, Or a motorbike in Tron, do the deed and then I'm gone.